How long she’s kept it off: “I started my weight-loss journey in March 2017,” Tibbs said. “I reached my goal weight in October 2017.”

Personal life: “I live in Roswell, Ga., with my husband, Andrew, and our four cats … who are all rescues from Angels Among Us, where I volunteer and foster cats. Andrew and I just celebrated our 38th wedding anniversary on Nov. 10. I have one son, a daughter-in-law and two grandchildren who currently live in Ireland and one son in Asheville, N.C. I used to work as an administrative assistant.”

Turning point: “I went through severe depression when I left my job and turned to food,” she said. “I knew I was putting on weight, and that made me even more depressed. I went to counseling to deal with the depression, and once I started feeling better, I knew I had to do something about the weight. I’ve tried several things in the past to lose weight and they seemed to work at the time, but this time was different — the weight was not coming off. I joined Weight Watchers in March 2017. I find that their plan is easy to follow and gives me the flexibility I need.”

Diet plan: A typical day starts with banana and toast. Lunch is a sandwich, and dinner is often chicken with vegetables and rice.

Exercise routine: “This is my favorite part,” Tibbs said. “Once I got myself together, I decided I needed to socialize or do some sort of group activity. This was out of my comfort zone and difficult for me because all the people I have seen at the gym are a size two and I just didn’t know where to start on my own.” On Facebook, she found Boot Camp in the Park LLC. “There were people who actually looked like me. … I started out two days a week for the first six-week session, then I moved up to three days per week for the next few sessions and then to four days a week. … I never thought I would ever like to exercise, but now I do.”

Biggest challenge: “My biggest challenge was going out of my comfort zone for both boot camp and then Weight Watchers,” she said.

How life has changed: “My life has changed in many ways,” Tibbs said. “First of all, I feel better. My knees used to hurt when I exercised, but now they are fine. I eat better. I have found I like way more vegetables than I thought. I can do things now at boot camp that I physically couldn’t do before because of the weight. I’m a happier person. I like how I look and how I feel. I did a 10-mile bike ride a few weeks ago and hiked up to a waterfall in Asheville, N.C. There is no way I would have been able to do that before.”

Share Your Success:Have you lost weight successfully with a healthy lifestyle change? If you would like to share your story with our readers, please include your email address, a daytime phone number, and before and after photos (by mail or JPEG), and contact us at: Success Stories, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 223 Perimeter Center Parkway, Atlanta, GA, 30346-1301; or email Michelle C. Brooks, ajcsuccessstories@gmail.com.

Popular in Lifestyles

1

2

3

Next Up in Living

The roar of a jet plane, the rumble of a big rig, that shrill scream from the siren of a speeding emergency vehicle: The common but loud noises that keep you awake at night and agitate you throughout the day may have a notable effect on your cardiovascular health, experts say. Researchers say noise pollution may increase the risk of heart disease,...

A new cancer treatment experiment at Stanford University that used immune-stimulators to target tumors in mice had remarkably encouraging results. After injecting a combination of two immune boosters directly into solid mouse tumors, the research team said the vaccination eliminated all traces of the specifically targeted cancer from the animal&rsquo...

“Dying is easy. Comedy is hard,” or so the famous last words ascribed to English actor Edmund Kean tell us. Making audiences laugh has certainly never been easy, but making them laugh while hitting nine high C’s in a row is just one of the extraordinary challenges of performing in a production of Gaetano Donizetti’s bel canto...

Milk is good for bones, but joints are another story for some people, according to a new study. A strain of bacteria commonly found in milk and beef may be a trigger for developing rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in individuals who are genetically at risk, according to researchers at the University of Central Florida. The bacteria — mycobacterium avium...

Maybe you got one of those find-your-ancestry kits over the holidays. You’ve sent off your awkwardly collected saliva sample, and you’re awaiting your results. If your experience is anything like that of me and my mom, you may find surprises — not the dramatic “switched at birth” kind, but results that are really different...